Fig. 4.

A combined depletion of insulin and branched-chain amino acids (bcaa) during in vitro preimplantation embryo development results in the production of offspring with a non sex-specific increase in birth weight (A,C) and early postnatal growth (B,D). Murine offspring is the result of transferring blastocysts (into well-fed embryo recipients) derived from 2-cell embryos cultured in either 100% (N = Normal) or 50% (L = Low) serum insulin levels with either 100% or 50% of bcaa concentrations found in the uterine luminal fluid of well-fed mice. Compared to controls (N-insulin + N-bcaa), the L-insulin + L-bcaa group showed increased birth weight and higher body weight at weeks 5–8 and 4–6 in males and females respectively. n = offspring number derived from 8 to 9 litters. Multilevel random effect regression analysis. *P < 0.05, ♦P < 0.10 (Trend).